Iliad

From ages past many eminent authors, or at least the ones who have considered themselves as such, have relied upon several literary devices and strategies to communicate with their esteemed readers. The simile, an often used device, has been employed by the likes of Byron, Dumas, and their antecedent Homer. Homer however, cognizant or unaware, used a special type of simile, the epic simile, which most likely has derived form his era. The epic simile is nothing but an extended comparison using the words like or as. It is very elaborate, it strives in its delineation, and it provides the topic of this essay: the use of the epic simile in Book 16 of the Iliad by Homer.

In order to pursue our topic further, the reader must be made aware of this paper’s main point. This paper is a discussion of set of four similes in Book 16 of Homer’s Iliad. It will present the simile, discuss and analyze the imagery and its meaning, analyze how the entire group functions in the section of the...